Mortifera Nocte
The history books tell it like this. A horrible race of alien invaders, the Tafili, came to Unicorpia and set up a base. They tested and taunted the unicorn tribes until one day they finally directly attacked. One war hero sacrificed his life for love, and his partner cleansed the battlefield with a midnight flame. After that, the races finally lived in peace. This story leaves out quite a bit of information, as history books often do. For instance, they called themselves Lucusta. They had a hard bodied shell, wings that closed fully along their backs like beetles, and had large pincer-like jowls. They were about as large as the Unicorns, and ate roughly the same foods, a mainly vegetarian diet. Their homeland was ravaged by a drought, and they sought refuge in Unicorpia before planning to move on in a nomadic search for a new home. Unfortunately, the Unicorns felt as though they had overstayed their welcome, and tensions begane to rise between the creatures. The Lucusta had a seemingly insatiable diet. While the Unicorns could feed from the same tree for years at a time, letting it go dormant and regrow each season, the Lucusta would feed on a full tree within a week, causing it to die, or unable to regrow as they’d snack on the new growth. The Unicorns were only able to carry one child at a time, possibly two, and only once per year. The Lucusta could birth up to 12 children in one hatching, and up to 3 times a year. They reached breeding maturity after two years, while Unicorns must wait until they are at least a century old. The balance between the two races and the environment they shared was a delicate one. Occasionally, violence would break out between them, resulting in many senseless deaths. It is rumored that a Unicorn once bit the head off of a Lucusta and ate it, even though tasting blood is considered taboo in Unicorn culture. The Lucusta’s pleas for more food, more area for their ballooning numbers fell on deaf ears. They were forced to feed on bark, dead wood, and whatever was left to grow in their allotted areas. The Unicorns called them Tafili, for parasite, as they consumed everything in their path. Hoping to push them out of their homeland, the Unicorns began ignoring the cries of the Lucusta, causing them to fall into extreme poverty. So many generations had born and died in their new land, they had forgotten their quest to find a new home. The tension came to a head on a very sacred, and forever immortalized day. The daughter of a Warlord and the son of a Tribal King were set to marry after having shared a quarter century engagement. They had grown up together, studied and fought together. She was just beginning to come into her power, having not had a proper War to explore her abilities, much to the disappointment of her Father. He had already embraced his own, as Prince of the Winds, he controlled the air around him up to a mile radius - this would have increased with practice, of course. They were a perfect pair, with one’s abilities capable of feeding the other’s they’d be an unstoppable duo. Their wedding day approached, as the Sun began to set beneath the horizon, the guests gathered for an overnight affair. They chose a sunrise wedding to celebrate the Light embracing their match now and eternal. Just before the vows were exchanged by Midnight, an arrow pierced through Caeli’s ears, causing him a very painful, slow death. The healing unicorns attempted to revive him, but the toxin at the tip of the arrow had already entered his bloodstream. The time it would take to purify that was longer than he had to survive. Naturally, necromancy was also against the Unicorn code, no matter how important the figure. The Bride held the head of the bleeding prince in her lap, staining the gown silver with his blood. Her tears fell to his face, as the guests all clamored to the exits, hearing the buzzing of thousands of wings coming their way. Her Father assembled his soldiers, as the King of the Winds and his family were led to safety, in case more assassinations were to be attempted. Once the army of starving, angry Lucusta warriors landed, their marching in formation toward the reception area, surrounding it on three sides, the archers in the trees and hovering above. Among the chaos, the Bride appeared to have a seizure. Her eyes glowed a sickly white, as blue flames shot out from within them. After a moment of her shrill, pained cry, she slowly stood up and walked directly toward the approaching militia. The soldiers under her Father’s command rushed toward her, but he stopped them with a wave of his hand, immediately directing them to take cover and pull any stragglers to safety. He himself turned to go inside, knowing full well what was about to happen. His daughter was about to gain access to her full power - and annihilate an entire army at the same time. She continued walking toward their front lines. They stopped, demanded she do the same, and listen to their demands before they feed on every tree in Unicorpia. She ignored them, walking ever closer, her hands glowing the same sickly white as her eyes and face. They took aim at her, and once more demanded she stop and orchestrate a dialogue between their leaders. She muttered something about showing up to a wedding uninvited, before opening her mouth to emit a straight shot of blue fire, right down a line of soldiers. They were incinerated in place, becoming nothing but smoky white dust and black soot marks. The others looked to each other, with only a moment to realize what happened, before her body shook and threw blue and orange flames all around her, her body itself the origin of a massive fireball. Her eyes coned out blue swirling flames, her hands puffed giant orange cyclones. Her throat burned and her screams, cries, threw pulsing flames above and all around her. The entire area and army was burned alive, frozen in place as white crispy shells of their former selves. Lucusta culture dictates that all genders must fight for their elders and egg-layers that are with child. The only surviving members were the caregivers, children, and elderly. The Warlord and his soldiers raided their camp shortly after the attack, seizing them all for imprisonment and questioning. Any child that was a seed-giver was slain, as well as any left around that were of breeding age. The elders and pregnant or caregiving Lacusta were spared, and eventually placed into a great walled garden for them to finish out their natural lives. They had short lives, compared to the Unicorns, and were quickly eradicated after about two decades. As the grieving Bride stood in the center of her destruction, tears steaming on her glowing, hot skin, she looked out onto the horizon as the sun began to rise. She said her vows, let the wind carry them to her lost love, she hoped. Caelis Ventus, he will forever hold a place in her heart. Her naming ceremony would be coming up, now that she had fully experienced her abilities, and she finally understood the true meaning of her name; Mortifer Nocte, Death Bringer by Night. All things happened for a reason, her flaming father marrying her midnight mother, their daughter sharing a fate with her beloved, ending so many lives in one emotional outburst. She made another vow that night. Should she ever be placed in the same position, it would be her to suffer the ultimate price.